arm. ‘I can’t imagine what you want to know about her,’ she shook her head.
His mouth twisted. ‘Why do both you and your sister persist in thinking I wouldn’t be interested in her?’
She frowned. ‘You didn’t say anything to Leonie to upset her, did you?’ she asked sharply. ‘Because if you did—–’
‘Believe it or not, I do not, physically or verbally, abuse women who already look like hell!’
Her cheeks flushed defensively. ‘Leonie has been ill—–’
‘I’m well aware of that,’ he stated. ‘But it’s Holly I want to talk about!’
Laura shrugged. ‘There’s nothing to say.’
‘Like hell there isn’t!’ he flared furiously. ‘Don’t you think you and Hal should have told me about her birth instead of just letting me go to the house and finding out about her the way that I did?’ he scorned.
‘She’s completely innocent in all this,’ Laura bristled. ‘And so is Leonie. You can’t be telling me that Holly’s existence makes a difference to your approval of the marriage?’ She looked disbelieving.
Both Leonie and Laura had the ability to wring your emotions to the fullest, and then still make you bleed! He didn’t want to dislike this woman, he had wanted things to work out for Hal, but there was no way he could condone this use of trickery.
‘All the difference in the world,’ he grated, giving a cold inclination of his head.
‘But why?’ she cried. ‘I can’t believe an unmarried mother in the family would bother you that much,’ she added disgustedly. ‘If it does then I’m not sure I want to marry Hal after all!’ Her voice trembled with emotion.
‘There’s no way any of us could stop Hal legalising Holly’s birth,’ Hawk rasped coldly.
‘What?’ Laura looked at him as if he had gone insane.
‘I can’t stop him going through with the marriage now,’ he conceded scornfully. ‘But if you think I’m going to make things easy for you by approving of the marriage then you’re going to be disappointed. I can’t accept your—–’
‘Wait a minute.’ Laura had the look of a person who had completely lost track of the conversation. ‘Hal isn’t Holly’s father—–’
‘Believe me, Laura, you’d be much better telling me he is,’ Hawk told her warningly.
‘But of course he isn’t,’ she said irritably.
‘I saw Holly, damn it!’ Now he was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t lost his grip on the conversation too!
‘Beautiful, isn’t she!’ Laura gave an indulgent smile. ‘Although why on earth you should think Hal had anything to do with her birth, I don’t know. Michael is her father, of course,’ she dismissed impatiently.
‘Michael who?’ Didn’t she realise she was only making the situation worse by disclaiming Hal as the father of her child? What on earth did she hope to achieve by doing that? Hal certainly wouldn’t accept another man’s child in those circumstances!
‘Michael Spencer,’ Laura supplied abruptly. ‘Leonie’s ex-husband.’
The Brandon sisters certainly had the ability to render him speechless! After years of always being in control, Hawk found these two women completely took his breath away, for one reason or another.
‘You, and this man Spencer—–’
‘No, of course not Michael and I,’ Laura denied indignantly. ‘Holly is Leonie’s and Michael’s child,’ she explained impatiently. ‘I can’t believe Leonie didn’t tell you she was Holly’s mother,’ she frowned.
She had, of course. But he had chosen to disbelieve her. Because Holly looked like Hal!
‘She did. I just—–Are you sure this guy Spencer is the father?’ he groaned. ‘They’re divorced, aren’t they?’
‘Most definitely,’ said Laura with some relief. ‘But Michael was round asking for money about the time Holly was conceived, and although I know Leonie can’t stand him, Michael isn’t the sort of man to take no for an answer!’ she added grimly.
‘You mean—he’d force her?’ challenged Hawk, fury coursing through him at the thought of any man using force on that silken body.
Laura shrugged. ‘I’m really not at liberty to discuss my sister’s marriage. But I couldn’t stand him. And Leonie quickly learnt what a brute he was.’
Hawk swallowed hard. ‘He—hurt her?’ His hands clenched into tight fists.
‘If he felt like it.’ Laura’s cold anger was directed towards the memories. ‘Michael has to be Holly’s father, because Leonie hasn’t been out with anyone since their marriage and divorce.’
He frowned. ‘No one at all?’
Laura gave a hard laugh. ‘If you’d been married to a man who threatened you, stole from you, humiliated you, you might feel more than a little apprehensive about becoming involved again!’
‘She should have left him earlier than she did,’ Hawk declared harshly, hating the thought of anyone hurting Leonie in that way.
Laura shrugged. ‘She believed in the vows they’d taken, and tried to be true to them.’
‘While that bastard broke every one of them!’ His eyes glittered furiously. ‘Why the hell would Spencer go to Leonie for money—or anything else?’ he grated hardly.
Laura sighed. ‘Michael refused to recognise the divorce, and as he’s out of work and Leonie earns money from our books…’ She shook her head. ‘She was doing so well, regaining some of the confidence and self-respect being married to Michael had taken from her, and then she found out she was pregnant! God, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.’ She looked at Hawk with pained eyes. ‘Leonie’s life is her own affair. And so is the father of her baby,’ she added defensively.
Michael Spencer had abused his wife, taken advantage of her giving nature—– Hawk couldn’t believe that Leonie would let the other man possess her body any more after that.
‘She’s been through so much lately,’ Laura continued brokenly. ‘The premature birth, her own illness—–’
Hawk became suddenly still. ‘Holly was born early?’
Laura nodded. ‘At least four weeks, the doctors estimated. They had to do a Caesarian operation in the end. I nearly lost both of them,’ she remembered with a shudder.
Holly was premature…! Hawk began to shake.
‘Leonie was so ill after the operation,’ Laura was saying now. ‘She had no idea what was happening around her for days, even Holly’s birth. I didn’t think she was going to come through it,’ she added emotionally.
‘Did Leonie
